Q&A: Griswold rec director Ryan Aubin

Tuesday

Oct 16, 2012 at 12:01 AMOct 16, 2012 at 4:00 PM

In the five years since he started as the town’s parks and recreation and youth services director, Jewett City native and Griswold resident Ryan Aubin has spent almost as much time with Griswold children as their teachers. In addition to being manager and mentor at the town’s drop-in youth center, he oversees town ballfields and recreational areas and develops after-school, weekend and summer programming to serve residents from birth to old age, including summer camps and exercise classes.

ALISON SHEA

In the five years since he started as the town’s parks and recreation and youth services director, Jewett City native and Griswold resident Ryan Aubin has spent almost as much time with Griswold children as their teachers. In addition to being manager and mentor at the town’s drop-in youth center, he oversees town ballfields and recreational areas and develops after-school, weekend and summer programming to serve residents from birth to old age, including summer camps and exercise classes.

Q: What are some of the challenges for the children you work with?
A: Griswold is split into two unique cultures. There’s the typical Jewett City kids and the typical Griswold kids. Jewett City is a more urban lifestyle. They hang out a lot, spend a lot of time at the parks just hanging out with their friends. In Griswold, they stay with their neighborhoods or they join organized sports. When we talk about “at-risk” youth, we mean the Jewett City kids. They’re hanging around town and more likely to get involved in gang activity, drugs, alcohol, or addictive behaviors. That’s why the youth center and a lot of our programming is created for them. They can walk here, come in and use it as a drop-in center. Our parks and recreation department is more focused on the rural Griswold residents, but also the Jewett City kids, to participate in sports as an outlet for their energy and something to do after school. Our population at the youth center is still pretty much split between Jewett City and Griswold. About 35 to 40 percent of our kids are from Griswold.

Q: Does having grown up in Jewett City make the job any easier?
A: Nothing’s easy here, but I love the job because it’s a huge challenge. A lot of responsibility goes into it, but there’s a dedication that comes from growing up here, and from wanting to see a better Griswold. I’ve been improving services for five years now, and I’m still trying. Now I’m actually seeing the change. We have great, great kids at the youth center now. When I first started here, the kids who were here, they were the ones getting in trouble and they would just hang out here. I had to overhaul that with the staff. That’s what I enjoy most — actually seeing the difference each day.

Q: What’s the best part of your job?
A: I think the best part of my job is creating programs that I know my daughter will be using one day when she’s old enough to attend. Every time I’m creating a program, an activity, or a youth services after-school program, in the back of my mind I’m thinking — put my whole heart into it and get it up and running so, when Skyler is old enough to use it, she’ll be able to enjoy it. That’s where it comes from. I’m trying to create programs and make them successful so she can use them when she’s old enough. I think of the kids as my own.

Q: When it comes to programming, are there any towns you look to as good models?
A: The town I want to mold our youth services bureau to is Montville because their director is absolutely wonderful, and the services they offer are also great. For parks and recreation, I really love Groton’s program. The reason they’re so successful is they put professionals in every role, so I’ve tried to emulate that, especially with our summer camp program.